Latest ‘Harry Potter’ book lives up to hype
August 31, 2016
Once again with the help of J.K. Rowling, readers get to travel to the world of Harry Potter. They get to experience the magic once again, with the characters they grew up alongside in “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”
Offering a bigger glimpse into what happened 19 years after the Battle of Hogwarts, the story revolves around Harry’s second son, Albus, and how he deals with living in his father’s shadow. Albus resents how his father’s fame affects his life and feels as if he will never be seen as anything other than “The Slytherin Son of the Boy Who Lived.”
On the other hand, readers get to see a different, more realistic side of Harry as he struggles with being an over-worked Ministry worker, as well as a father of three. He must realize that his son is different than him before Albus gives up on him completely. The plot of this story is mainly dependent on this conflict as Albus struggles to deal with his friendships, family and his father’s past that soon comes back to haunt the present.
Something a bit different with this book is that it’s written into the form of a play, which is a sore spot with some and the opposite for others. Traditional readers wanted more of a sounder novel that backed the rest of the series, whereas others loved the new format and the fact it was performed at the Palace Theatre in London the night before the book was released.
After years of waiting for a development in the series, seeing the play rather than novel form was a bit shocking. Nonetheless, the character development and plot make up for the change. The book shows us sides of the story that we, as young readers, never got to experience.
J.K. Rowling, with the help of John Tiffany and Jack Thorne, allows us to relive what so many of us fell in love with at a young age. With the compelling plot that grows more immersive by each act, they gave the readers the in depth glimpse of Harry’s world they’ve been wanting for years.
Emily Hoover • Sep 1, 2016 at 12:03 pm
I hate to be negative, but it must be said: this book was so horrible that I almost cried reading it. Characters’ personalities don’t line up with their past selves (and not in a we-grew-up way, but in a we-need-to-be-flat-characters-in-order-to-advance-the-plot way), the situations were unrealistic to the point that I laughed out loud a few times, and the dialogue was not only flat, it was boring. I was extremely annoyed that they felt the need to bring back characters who had died in heroic ways, just so those characters could smile and their eyes twinkle and they could literally condone their own deaths. It felt like JK Rowling became the lamest fan of her own story that has ever existed (something I was afraid of when she kept rearranging how things “should have gone” via Twitter).
I love plays. I go to as many plays a year as I can find (and afford). The problem with this isn’t that it’s a play, the problem is that it’s pandering to people who never quite got the point.
Although, since Rowling DID commiserate on this, maybe those people are right and the ones who thought there was something more to the story than good special effects are the ones who are confused.